Ancestry and kinship in a Late Antiquity-Early Middle Ages cemetery in the Eastern Italian Alps

Valentina Coia; Alice Paladin; Stefania Zingale; Christina Wurst; Myriam Croze; Frank Maixner; Albert Zink

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108215

Ancestry and kinship in a Late Antiquity-Early Middle Ages cemetery in the Eastern Italian Alps

iScience. 2023 Oct 14;26(11):108215. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108215. eCollection 2023 Nov 17.

Authors

Valentina Coia¹, Alice Paladin¹, Stefania Zingale¹, Christina Wurst¹, Myriam Croze¹, Frank Maixner¹, Albert Zink¹

Affiliation

¹ Institute for Mummy Studies, Eurac Research, Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy.

Abstract

In South Tyrol (Eastern Italian Alps), during Late Antiquity-Early Middle Ages, archeological records indicate cultural hybridization among alpine groups and peoples of various origin. Using paleogenomics, we reconstructed the ancestry of 20 individuals (4^th-7^th cent. AD) from a cemetery to analyze whether they had heterogeneous or homogeneous ancestry and to study their social organization. The results revealed a primary genetic ancestry from southern Europe and additional ancestries from south-western, western, and northern Europe, suggesting that cultural hybridization was accompanied by complex genetic admixture. Kinship analyses found no genetic relatedness between the only two individuals buried with grave goods. Instead, a father-son pair was discovered in one multiple grave, together with unrelated individuals and one possible non-local female. These genetic findings indicate the presence of a high social status familia, which is supported by the cultural materials and the proximity of the grave to the most sacred area of the church.

Keywords: Archeology; Human Genetics; Human geography; Paleogenetics.